So why buy Real Estate in Bansko Ski Resort?

Bansko is the new mountain resort that Bulgaria has to offer with facilities for both summer and winter tourists. The skiing conditions during winter are great with many runs to cater for all types of skiers and snowboarders. Capital growth in property has been on the increase since the year 2000, when foreign investors were allowed to buy properties. The prospects for the future in real estate look good with a new airport planned for Bansko and an estimated 200kms of runs with lifts and facilities to be built.

Mountain Residences – Marketed by Savills – Prices from £39,000

400m from the main gondola this property development of 177 studio, 1, 2 and 3 bed apartments is in a great centrally location position within Bansko.

To register your interest and get a brochure click here

White Fir Resort – Marketed by MSI developments – Prices from £35,000- £155,000

A short distance from the ski runs of Bansko, this development will sit overlooking a championship Ian Woosnam golf course. These apartments will be valuable in the future as your rental potential is maximised for all year round use!

Want more information click here

Park View – Marketed by Coral Estates – Prices from £27,181

An exclusive development to Coral Estates this development is excellent value for money. It is also very close to the skiing area and lifts with a choice of studios 1 and 2 bedrooms units.

They have a micro site for this development, to view it click here

A preview event for London’s newest luxury hotel project Nest takes place on Saturday 22nd April. Currently selling off-plan, Nest, replicates the successful Guesthouse West formula pioneered by Johnny Sandelson, CEO and founder of GuestInvest, the company behind the UK’s first hotel buy-to-let scheme. Paddington is the newest location for their innovative property investment concept allowing investors the opportunity to buy their own fully-maintained hotel room, stay there free for up to 52 nights a year and receive 50 per cent of the room’s yearly letting income.

Since the developments launch at the start of 2006, 30% of the 170 rooms have sold to early bird investors. A slice of the Nest egg starts from ₤200,000 for a 999-year lease and includes complimentary membership of exclusive London members’ club Home House. Close to major transport links and within easy reach of Heathrow Airport, Nest is an attractive proposition considering rooms at the original Guesthouse West in Notting Hill are already seeing returns in excess of 6.5 per cent and 10 per capital growth over 18 months.

In a unique collaboration between UK architects Cowie Dalgleish Montgomery and British super yacht builders Pendennis will apply boat builder ingenuity to the hotel’s design. However, guests will have to wait until early 2007 to enjoy the bespoke hand-made beds from Savoir Beds, wireless access, power-showers and a 24 hour concierge service which combine to offer visitors the highest level of comfort.

As London remains a major destination for over 11 million tourists and business travellers annually, Nest offers a secure, hassle- and maintenance-free asset and more recently very attractive tax advantages as part of the SIPP* investment scheme.

Saturday’s preview event takes place at Guesthouse West in Notting Hill, alternatively you can view a life-size Nest room on display at GuestInvest’s Piccadilly showroom
* Investors purchase a GuestInvest room as part of a SIPP should note that while they are unable to stay in their room, their return on investment will rise accordingly as the number of let-able nights increases.

Developers continue to invent novel ways to get their new development noticed. It seems developers are competing harder than ever to get their real estate project marketing attention and the free home giveaway is hard to resist!

As part of their Shout House Win House promotion, starting Saturday April 22nd, the National Bingo Game Association have teamed up with Spanish property developer QSD Group to give away 4 townhouses valued at approx ₤100,000. Located on Spain’s Costa Blanca, Ciudad Quesada is an award winning new development project close to the popular resorts of Alicante and Torrevieja. The project has its own golf course, shops and restaurants.

With UK gambling spend worth an estimated 42 billion a year and rising, I think its safe to say that even if you aren’t lucky enough to have a full house on Saturday, the National Bingo Association are sure to.

In addition to the buying costs of a property abroad, a common expense overlooked by many people buying a long-term investment property, is the ongoing ‘community’ or service charge. As many pre construction apartments and condos projects share common areas, inevitably there are shared expenses which arise. This itself is not a problem but as developers vie to create newsworthy international real estate resorts, shared amenities such as an onsite gym, spa or even a pitch and putt ultimately result in excessive long-term running costs being passed onto property owners. A shared pool and gardens is fine but as the extra features mount up so too do the community charges.

Having experienced this first hand with a property in Spain, my community fees remain excessively high (3264€ a year) as a result of a number of factors:
Corruption – ongoing service contracts such as gardening may not be awarded on competitiveness
Conflicting interests – as a result of failing to sell units, the developer holds a voting majority and can affect key items such as the way community charges are calculated, who are awarded service contracts and may even pass certain unrelated costs onto the community and ultimately owners.
Poor community participation – many owners with property abroad are kept ill informed about community issues by lack of use of basic technology such as a community website and email list or worse fail to take an interest in community issues meaning problems and excessive charges can remain unresolved for months even years possibly affect your ability to sell your property.

Continue reading ‘Overseas Property Community Charges may affect your resale potential’

Well a while back I posted on the subject of Amanda Lamb’s 20 best places to buy. At the top of the list was Romania as the number 1 destination to buy in for property investment growth. So armed with that information I decided to go looking for off-plan property in Romania for investment.

Barrasford and Bird are promoting the Saint Vlas complex in Mamaia on the Romanian Blacksea coast. This development looks very similar in design to many of the complexes that are being developed in Bulgaria.

Looking at their current pricelist I feel these units are slightly overpriced based on the fact that this is a new market and its more established neighbour Bulgaria has properties cheaper than €82,000.

Romanian deals have launched their new development Costinesti Sun Garden Holiday Apartments also on the black sea coast, definately worth a look.

Update 19:34pm:

The development in Romania above has studios starting from approx €45,000.

I have been made aware of an excellent investment opportunity in Western Romania, if you would like more information on this project please email me for further details.

A Huge Artificial Island of 100 hectares in the Atlantic Ocean for off plan property development.

The Vale do Lobo Company intends to construct the largest ever Property investment project in Portugal.
The Island will be called “Nautilus” and will be comprised by a golf course, an underwater restaurant and an underwater hotel, casino and 700 to thousand homes connected to Vale do Lobo Resort by a bridge.
Waiting for the Portuguese Government approval, this project is considered one of the most innovative developments in the world.

Source: Atlantic Estates in Portugal.

Continue reading ‘New Island at Vale do Lobo on Portugals Algarve’

We would like to showcase any of our subscribers who have invested in property off-plan successfully and ‘flipped’ it. There are so many developments advertising their investment potential, we would like to showcase anyone who has actually managed to successfully invest off-plan in say Bulgaria and plough the profit into the newest off-plan project.

We would like to hear from anyone on their experience, which development they bought and why, an idea of the buying and selling price, who they used to help them and any tips for off-plan novices.

Use the comments link under this post to tell us your story!

It seems UK developers are starting to listen to their public and hot on the heels of recent off plan intelligent living concepts in Manchester and Leeds. David Wilson Homes have gone one step further with their i-liFE range, which has been based on a larger Project Life study by the University of Nottingham which tracked a typical family’s movement patterns in a prototype new home over a 6 month period. On the back of the study, i-liFE properties reverse the classic home layout putting a spacious living / eating zone on the upper level incorporating high ceilings with mezzanine storage to use dead space. Downstairs you have a double bedroom with good wardrobe storage and the bathroom includes the washing machine for improved efficiency. Continue reading ‘Own your first New Home with i-liFE’